


King of My Heart

by TenSpencerRiedPlease



Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Wings, Humor, Hurt Tony, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, M/M, Stephen is a Sweetie, Tony Feels, Wingfic, why cant i tag things tonight wtf
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-14 00:14:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13581954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TenSpencerRiedPlease/pseuds/TenSpencerRiedPlease
Summary: Stephen has always beenfascinatedby wings, probably because you couldn’t actually see them. Not until a person chose to present them anyways.





	King of My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> Warning for nonconsensual drug use

Stephen has always been _fascinated_ by wings, probably because you couldn’t actually see them. Not until a person chose to present them anyways. There was no reason for that- Stephen looked it up- that’s just the way things worked at least in Western cultures. Wings were tied to romance, love. Eastern cultures tended to associate wings with family and were less stingy on when they were presented, but those with bad family lives didn’t tend to show their wings. Wakanda was an entirely different view all together but the information was conflicting and the country wasn’t forthcoming on their wing culture- or _any_ culture from the region.

Regardless it was the intricacies of wings that drew Stephen to them, and the differences. Wings were the most medically complex things humans had mostly because of the sheer variation of them. Some people had wings like birds, and some had wings like insects, but others had wings that didn’t fit any kind of category. Learning about them was grueling and difficult and most people couldn’t manage to learn how to deal with every kind of wing there was but Stephen had been determined. Christine had too, which drew them together. It was almost funny the way they studied wings together, grew together through school, their residency, and their career but they never did show each other their wings. Actually they didn’t even know what their wings looked like. American culture tended to lean towards keeping them even from yourself until you met the right person, not that Stephen believed in that.

It helped that his family hailed from Nepal, meaning wings in his family were oriented to each other, not love, but Stephen grew up in America with their values. The things his grandparents talked about weren’t tangible to him the way his own lived culture was. But that wasn’t the reason he’s never seen his own wings- it’s just that he had no desire to see them. He was too busy with everyone _else’s_ wings to worry about his own.

*

Christine bursts into his office and Stephen jumps, about flinging his noodles across the room and he glares at her. “ _Do_ you mind?” he asks, eyes narrowed.

“No I don’t because I have a _really_ weird case and I need your help _now_ ,” she tells him, turning on her heel and running from the room. Stephen ends up throwing his noodles anyways and running after her, knowing that this was not a situation Christine would mess around with. if she needed his help it was because she needed his specialization. Not many people were smarter than her in this hospital- actually it was only him that was smarter than her and even then he attributed that to his memory, not an actual intelligence score. But the skill remained useful in situations like this when he could recall information faster than she could.

With her experience it was rare that he was needed though, so he wondered what it was until he came to the emergency room and frowned at the black… substance that was smeared all over the walls. “I hope that isn’t a biohazard,” Stephen says.

‘We don’t know _what_ it is, just follow me,” Christine tells him. He does, getting more confused as he goes because someone clearly fell in the black mess that was all over the emergency room now. He hoped someone was running tests on that.

When they get to the patient Stephen’s eyebrows hit his hairline. He was draped over a bed hastily and that black substance was everywhere, but especially all over his wings. “Jesus,” Stephen mumbles, shocked.

“I know. You can see why I called you,” Christine says. So he did but he had no idea what to do here either. After hesitating for only a moment he flies into action, figuring if nothing else he’ll try and see what was happening with the wings given that it was obvious that they were producing that black substance.

“Get someone to test that,” he tells Christine, pointing at the black goo. “God knows what that is and I don’t want to find out I’m going to die because that’s toxic in the middle of surgery or something,” he says.

Christine rolls her eyes at him, “it isn’t toxic Stephen, we already tested it. We don’t really know what it is, but we know its mostly just gross,” she says. Well that was one problem solved at least. Stephen crouches and examines where the wings attach to this guy’s back and winces, standing up because Christine was not going to like this. She held attachment to wings that Stephen didn’t. His interest was purely scientific and medical. Hers was personal.

“We can’t save these,” he says and Christine looks horrified.

“ _Stephen_!” she says, making a scandalized noise.

“You already knew it, don’t play stupid. You were hoping I’d find a solution you didn’t see. These wings are poisoning him though, look at the space around his wings,” he says, pointing to the black lines extending from the wings. Christine crouches and winces.

“That wasn’t there before. I’ll get an OR room ready,” she says quietly. Stephen sighs and hopes this guy wasn’t too attached to his wings otherwise this wasn’t going to be an easy loss.

*

Tony wakes up feeling disoriented and confused, which wasn’t helped by the fact that he was lying on his stomach. He goes to move and pain shoots through his back and he lets out a noise of pain before he hears rustling beside him. “You aren’t going to want to do that,” someone says in a deep, attractive voice. The doctor, or Tony assumed it was a doctor, ducks into his view and he raises an eyebrow, wondering when doctors could double for movie stars. This guy was _attractive_ so Tony smiles. “Good to see you’re in a pleasant mood. Uh,” he looks away briefly and sighs, “I’m afraid that probably won’t last long. Do you remember why you’re here?” he asks.

Why he was here? Why…- “right my wings…” He had no idea what happened, he’d been at a function and everything had been fine until he felt this odd sharp pain in his back. From there things went fast and… well now he was here. And obviously something had happened if the pain in his back was any indication.

The doctor nods, “from what we gathered you must have taken some kind of drug- I imagine unknowingly- that forced your wings to present themselves. It didn’t go very well. However that drug forced your wings to show it didn’t interact with them well after that. We uh… they had to be amputated. We had no choice,” he says softly.

Tony lets out a small breath and closes his eyes. It wasn’t that his wings mattered to him much really; he’s never really cared. But now he didn’t get the option to care because he no longer had wings. He opens his eyes, “so what do I do now?” he asks.

To the credit of the doctor he looks surprised with Tony’s reaction. “Well, you heal. That’s going to take some time and some rehabilitation but you’ll be able to function the way you did before. There is a chance they may grow back but I wouldn’t put much hope in that- its _exceedingly_ rare. You’d be more likely to be hit by lightening twice. Literally. But it is technically possible,” he says.

He sighs and ignores any kind of rising hope his wings would grow back. If you asked him a week ago if he’d care about his wings being gone his answer would have been no. He’d never care enough about a person to present them anyways and had no desire to take a look at them for himself. Now he was curious and a little pissed off that he didn’t take the chance while he had it. “What did they look like?” he asks. If this was the same guy who cut them off he’d obviously know.

“Quite beautiful actually, very rare. Black wings are hard enough to find, but with gold on them? You might just be the first. It was a real shame to see them go- technically I do still have them, if you want them. I thought… well, it is customary to present your wings to your lover so I saved them for you. It’s a bit macabre but I thought I’d give you the option if you wanted it…” he says, trailing off and wincing.

Tony considers this for a moment before he speaks. “I… when I can actually move, can I see them?” he asks. The doctor smiles a little and nods.

*

This was an odd case, but Stephen has always had a love for oddities. In particular he was working with some people in pharmaceuticals to figure out what kind of drug Tony was exposed to because it was dangerous. He also ended up roped into working with the police to figure out who could have drugged Tony but he had little patience for that. He’s a _doctor_ , not Sherlock fucking Holmes.

The best thing about this case though was Tony. Stephen didn’t often like his patients, they were mostly an irritating means to an end, but he rather liked Tony. He was bright, surprisingly optimistic, and it probably helped that he’s attractive. “Do you always have to poke and prod at me?” Tony asks as Stephen tells him to lift his arms and drop them again.

“If I intend to make sure you’re healing right yes, do it again,” Stephen tells him. Tony does, rolling his eyes fondly at Stephen as he follows the instructions. “How are you feeling?” he asks as Tony’s arms drop to his side again.

“Less like a fly that got its wings plucked off. Now I feel bad for all my creepy fly experiments as a child,” he says, shaking his head.

Stephen laughs, “I knew a kid in grade school who would catch flies, throw them at the ground to stun them, and then keep them on his arm as pets.”

Tony turns to give him a confused look, “what the fuck?”

He laughs harder, “he was a weird kid and I dislike bugs so we never interacted much. Now, I suspect you’re having less difficulty completing normal daily tasks?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

Tony grins wide, “not going to ask how my showers are going this time, doctor?” he asks and Stephen rolls his eyes.

“That was one time,” he mumbles, “let it go.”

“It was hilarious. But mostly no, not unless I pick up something heavy and then my back tells me I should probably put that back down,” he says.

Good, he was on the right track to recovery then. Stephen sighs, “well, then I am happy to inform you that you can go home how,” he tells Tony.

This seems to surprise him, “oh? I… okay,” he says.

“What, did you want to stay? Something tells me your house has more comfortable beds than the hospital,” Stephen says, smiling.

Tony grins again, “what to find out?” he asks, raising an eyebrow.

Stephen laughs, shaking his head at how absurdly _forward_ that was. “You should probably avoid sexual activity for awhile actually, let your back heal a bit more,” he says.

Tony snorts, “you’re a doctor, figure it out. And if things go wrong well, you fixed me once,” Tony points out.

*

“I hope you know this is _wildly_ inappropriate,” Christine hisses at him.

“So was dating you and I did that,” he points out.

She rolls her eyes, “not one of my finer moments,” she mumbles. “But dating your _patients_ is a new achievement- don’t give me that look it isn’t a good thing!” she tells him.

“Technically he was released two weeks ago so he isn’t a patient anymore,” Stephen says. “Don’t give me that look, its true and you know it. Besides, is this really such a bad thing?” he asks.

Christine gives him a _look_ , “he still needs checkups, Stephen, that _does_ make a difference. And I’ve seen you two together so yes, it is. Just don’t do something more stupid than normal,” she tells him.

“First of all I don’t make stupid decisions, and second, Tony and I are surprisingly compatible so I don’t see why you’re upset about this. And checkups hardly count for anything.” It was rare Stephen enjoyed the company of others- they were so tedious and annoying- so he’d been surprised to find Tony. He kept up with Stephen’s quick wit, fast knowledge, and despite having little to no interest in the medical field he did have more than passable knowledge when it came to holding a conversation. Plus Tony liked cars as much as he did, and also had a habit of doing reckless things for the thrill of it. if Stephen believed in that sort of thing he would assume they were all but made for each other.

“I’m not upset, I’m annoyed that you’re making yet another reckless decision. This is eventually going to be your down fall,” Christine tells him.

“So you’re upset, got it,” Stephen tells her, grinning. She rolls her eyes at him and walks off, clearly disapproving. He ignores her and goes off to find Tony, who needed to be checked out no pun intended and he wanted to see his wings. It really was a shame he had to lose them, they were easily one of the most beautiful wings Stephen has ever seen.

When he spies Tony he grins, “you look pleased with yourself,” he notes.

“I’m always pleased with myself dear, follow me,” Stephen tells him; amused that Tony laughs at the joke. It wasn’t entirely untrue- he had little to hold against himself- but most people took his comments a little too seriously while Tony understood humor. Tony follows him along, placing his yellow tinted sunglasses on his head.

“So how come I have to come to these appointments? Just saying you probably had a more in depth look at me last night than you will now. Unless you’ve got plans I don’t know about,” Tony says, wiggling his eyebrows.

Stephen snorts, “what do you think this is, Grey’s Anatomy? People don’t actually have sex in the damn hospital; we’re all dead on our feet here. And last night I wasn’t interested in medicine,” he says. “So shush and deal with it.”

“I’m just saying, literally any activity we do together outside of a hospital is more informative than these checkups,” Tony tells him, catching the edge of Stephen’s coat and pulling himself closer.

He wraps an arm around Tony and smiles down at him, “not when I’m not actively looking for anything medically useful. So relax and _deal_ with it,” he tells him.

Tony rolls his eyes, “you’re _always_ looking for something medically useful,” he mumbles, “just saying.”

*

Stephen doesn’t know what to expect out of Tony’s reaction to his wings but they were impeccably preserved, he made sure of it if for no other reason than feeling bad for having to get rid of such pretty wings. Tony presses himself into Stephen’s side and he wraps his arm around Tony, hoping it provided some kind of comfort. He knew Tony hadn’t much thought of his wings before he lost them, but Stephen knew he felt some kind of loss when they were gone.

He pulls back the sheet on the wings, wincing when they’re revealed unattached to an owner. They were just sad looking this way but Tony’s eyes widen. “Wow, you really weren’t kidding when you said they were pretty,” he says, looking them over.

“They remind me of the way your eyes look in the light,” Stephen tells him. Tony’s eyes were a stunning dark brown, but when the light hit them right they turned a shade that reminded Stephen of molten gold. The first time it crossed his mind he was tempted to flog himself for such a stupid thought, but he’s since come to terms with it.

Tony gives him a _look_ for the comment though, “really?” he asks.

He shrugs, “its true, not stop looking at me like that.”

*

Tony presses himself into Stephen’s lap, forcing the giant medical text that was previously in it out. “You know for a wing expert I’m surprised that you don’t have them out. I figure you wouldn’t be bound by all that stupid shit about love or whatever. Or I guess family in your case, if you do uh… Nepal things,” he says, waving a hand around.

Stephen rolls his eyes, looking down at his dropped book. “Sometimes I wonder if you’re a cat instead of a human. And no, I’ve never been particularly curious about my wings. Except for the fact that they never seem to hit anything- even before people allow them to show they usually run into stuff but I’ve never had that issue.”

Uh, so Tony knew. He learned long ago he must have large wings because he constantly ran into stuff after puberty hit. It had been weird adjusting to not running into things when he got too close to them now. “Personally I’ve always found that inconvenient, not seeing the stupid things from the beginning. Any reason why that is?” he asks. Stephen obviously knew more wing science than he did but he shakes his head.

“No idea, just that forcing them to be seen never seems to go well. That you know from experience,” he says, wincing a little.

He rolls his eyes, “yeah, so I know. Turns out some idiot decided it was a good idea to spike my drink, probably a fan, have I ever mentioned hating being a celebrity?” he asks.

“Only all the time,” Stephen tells him, smiling. “But I suppose the police at least found the person who drugged you- they just about killed you too. You should have seen yourself when you came in, I thought you were a bio hazard.”

Tony laughs, “love you too, Stephen. But yeah I guess that’s a good thing- leaves the police out of my business. They kept asking stupid questions about what I was doing and the people around me. The fuck do I look like, Sherlock Holmes? I was avoiding human interaction, how was I supposed to who was around me?” he asks. He’s never liked galas anyways, how could he have predicted that that someone would drug him when he wasn’t watching. He was literally _holding_ his glass, that was a pretty ballsy move on behalf of the idiot who drugged him.

“Hmm, I understand your pain. I’m usually the subject of talks doctors do, but the small talk before I give whatever speech- _ugh_. Awful. Though at least I’m not likely to be drugged, thankfully. Are you really curious about my wings, though?” he asks.

“Duh, I can’t believe you aren’t. You should see Rhodey’s wings; he was _pissed_ when he discovered they were this hideous purple color. He dyes the feathers a much darker purple,” he says, grinning. Hope had laughed for a full hour, which Rhodey had been offended with but when Tony saw them he laughed too.

Stephen wrinkles his nose, “I hope mine aren’t purple. I hate the color. And blue, I can’t _stand_ blue- no matter the shade. But if you’re curious I’ll show them to you. Might as well see what they look like, everyone at the hospital is curious too,” he says.

Tony’s eyebrows shoot up, “ _what_? I was mostly joking,” he says.

“Well, I’ve seen yours. It’s only fair,” he points out.

“I was _dying_ ,” Tony squeaks out, “you had no choice.”

“You had no choice, but I do. Besides, you _did_ just tell me that you loved me and I know that wasn’t a joke,” he says. He laughs at the panic on Tony’s face and brushes some hair out away from Tony’s forehead. “Relax- against all odds I love you too,” he says softly.

Tony squints, “‘against all odds’? What’s that supposed to mean?” he asks, slightly offended.

“It means I loath spending time with people and I like you. A lot. You’re funny, and smart, and your ass should be the eight wonder of the modern world,” he says and Tony snorts and starts laughing. “Just saying, I’m a doctor, I know physical perfection when I see it and you my dear are it. Now up you get, I want to see if I have hideous purple wings,” he says, grinning and pulling Tony up with him as he stands.

“I… you don’t have to do this,” he tells Stephen.

“Oh trust me I know, but I figure I might we well stop waiting. Its not as if I’d find someone better than you anyways- realistically I can only go downhill from here,” he says, pulling Tony to his chest. He smiles up at Stephen, his heart beating faster than normal because he didn’t think he’d ever be in a position where someone would ever show him their wings. And Stephen was… well, he was great. Smart, witty, not at all put off by Tony’s shitty personality, and the fact that he was attractive with a voice that was _way_ to hot for any human to have. Not that Tony minded of course.

After a moment Tony raises an eyebrow, “wing shy?” he asks and Stephen frowns.

“How do you do this?” he asks and Tony rolls his eyes.

“Stephen I was drugged into exposing my wings and _you’re_ the expert here- why would you ask me?” he asks.

Stephen’s cheeks turn a little red, “good point,” he mumbles. Tony frowns when something orange catches his attention and his eyes go wide when he realizes what it is. Stephen’s wings were… were… Tony didn’t know how to describe them; they almost looked like energy buzzing behind him and they… _glowed_. His jaw drops as Stephen’s wings shimmer in their own light and Stephen turns to look at his own wings and grins.

“These are easily the coolest wings I have ever seen and I see a _lot_ of wings. I should have known,” he says, turning to Tony with that cocky smile and he laughs, shaking his head.

*

Christine doesn’t look like she wants to be there at all and Tony can’t fucking get comfortable for the _life_ of him so he can’t blame her. “We should have faked sick,” he tells her and she laughs.

“Fake sick to avoid a _doctor_? Stupid plan,” she tells him.

Okay she made a point but still. “How the fuck was I ever comfortable sitting with these stupid things?” he asks, trying to maneuver his fucking wings around with little to no luck. Of course he was one of the lucky ones what grew them back- and growing them back was very painful and _not_ lucky- and now that they were back he was tempted to tell Stephen to cut the damn things off again. He’d only just gotten used to them being gone when they decided to reappear much to Stephen’s delight. He’d never been able to study wings that grew back so he was happy to have a medical miracle happening in front of him aside from his own highly unusual wings. Most people didn’t have wings that were basically made of some kind of light energy after all. Actually that was basically Stephen and five other people in all of recorded history, which he found particularly cool.

“You’ll get used to them again,” Christine tells him, patting his arm as he glares at the large, black and gold wings behind him. The bonus, Tony guessed, was that his wings were build to fly so that was kind of cool. Most people couldn’t do that or so Stephen informed him.

“Not before I convince Stephen to amputate these fucking things,” he mumbles.

Christine covers her mouth to try and hide a laugh and fails, “sorry to inform you but if they grow back once, they will again. Its part of the way things work with those who can grow wings back. Though Stephen might be convinced to amputate just to monitor the process of them growing back again,” she tells him, thinking it over.

He absolutely hated wings, wing science, and the stupid wings attached to his back. The crowd hushes as Stephen approaches the podium though so Tony slumps in his seat, wings twitching as the stupid things tried and failed to get comfortable behind him. Stephen looks out over the crowd for a moment, standing tall and proud- probably a little arrogant too, before his gaze falls on Tony and his facial expression softens a little. Most people wouldn’t describe Stephen as overly expressive- mostly he acted like he knew everything and showed little beyond that- but with Tony he always showed more. He smiles at Stephen, who gives him a full smile back before turning to the crowd, his smile turning more to that cocky grin most who knew him were used to.

“While the research is technically mine, I have to thank my lovely partner for making it possible to begin with. You’re the reason I discovered a whole new side to wings, Tony,” Stephen says, turning briefly to him. Christine makes an annoyed noise.

“Oh me makes _me_ put my name last on a surgery technique we made _together_ but he gives _you_ the credit to research he did all on his own. Typical,” she mumbles. Tony shakes his head and laughs though because that was _so_ Stephen.

**Author's Note:**

> [My writing Tumblr](https://tenspencerriedplease.tumblr.com/)


End file.
